16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

60 16 th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology Ekaterina Kashina 1 , Aleksandr Shutikhun 2 , Aleksandr Okorokov 3 & Evgeniy Gak 1 1 Department of Archaeology, State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia 2 independent researcher, Kotlas, Russia 3 Russian Heritage Institute, Moscow, Russia Visible and invisible water transport components of the East European Plain and the Trans-Urals in Prehistory So far, the only Prehistoric logboat recorded in the territory of the European part of Russia is dated to the Bronze Age by 14 C (1800-1700 cal BC), as verified in the course of our study, funded by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (project no. 19-09-00301). Other logboat finds in Russia date in the range from the Late Medieval Period to the 19 th c. AD. Based on the ethnographical data of Siberian indigenous peoples and written sources of the Early Modern period from the area of Northern Russia, the presence of birch bark canoes and skin boats in the past can be hypothetically recognized. The unique find of the ceramic birch bark canoe model comes from a col- lective burial of Bronze Age Forest hunter-gatherer-fishers in Central Russia and dates to around 2200-2000 cal BC. By construction, the canoe reminds one of Native American designs and according to proportions could represent a boat for two persons, about 6 m long. Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Early Bronze Age paddle finds come both from the East European Plain and the Middle Trans-Urals. Some of them were definite- ly used for canoes or skin boats, as they have light weight and moderate length. This contribution discusses their dimensions and decoration patterns, and con- centrates also on the unique group of the Trans-Uralic items shaped to assem- ble either the one-blade or the double-blade paddle. Some Trans-Uralic peatbog wooden items which presumably could have been canoe or skin boat frame de- tails are discussed also. As a result, a much more comprehensive picture of forest-zone Prehistor- ic water transport has emerged after re-analyzing old and recent archaeological finds and establishing their relevance with the ethnographical data.